Elien Van Wynendaele (born 19 February 1995) is a former Belgian

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who last played for

Eendracht Aalst SC Eendracht Aalst is a Belgian football club based in Aalst, East Flanders. History During World War I, citizens from Aalst played football matches to raise money for prisoners of war. In 1919 Sport-Club Eendracht Aalst became an official f ...

in Belgium's First Division.

Club career

Van Wynendaele started her career at the age of 4, with the youth team of the East Flemish Bambrugge. She then moved to

Club Brugge KV (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

via

RSC Anderlecht ; french: Les Mauves et Blancs) , short name = R.S.C.A. , founded = , ground = Constant Vanden Stock Stadium , capacity = 22,500 , owntitle = Chairman , owner = Wouter Vandenhaute , manager = Brian Riemer ...

, in 2011. In 2013, she joined

AA Gent Koninklijke Atletiek Associatie Gent (, English: ''Royal Athletic Association Ghent''), often simply known as Ghent or by their nickname ' ( en, The Buffalos), is a Belgian sports club, based in the city of Ghent, East Flanders. Their football ...

. Having struggled with knee injuries since the Euro 2017 tournament, Van Wynendaele decided to step down from top-tier football and signed for D1 team E. Aalst Ladies in 2019. She captained her last game for Gent during the final match of Play-Off 1 against

KRC Genk Ladies KRC Genk Ladies is a Belgian women's football club based in Genk. It is the women's section of KRC Genk The club was formed as a merger of clubs from Lanaken and Zonhoven in 2013, and has been known as Ladies Genk since 2015 when they relocate ...

. In early 2020, after only a few months at Aalst, Van Wynendaele was again injured and ended her career definitely, at age 24.

International career

On 7 June 2010, Van Wynendaele started her international career playing for Belgium U15 in a friendly match against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Between 2010 and 2012, she played 17 games for the Belgium U17 team and scored one goal. Her first game for the U17 side was on 28 August against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. On 19 September 2012, Van Wynendaele debuted for Belgium U19 team against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Tammela, Finland Tammela is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the Tavastia Proper region. The municipality has a population of () and it covers an area of of which is inland water (). The population density is (). The first mention of a village named ...

. On 21 June 2014 she played her last match for the U19 side against the Netherlands in

Mjøndalen Mjøndalen is a built up area in Drammen municipality in Viken county (formerly Buskerud county), Norway. It is situated south of the Drammenselva River opposite of Krokstadelva. History Mjøndalen has traditionally been a railway site most k ...

. On 26 November 2014, Van Wynendaele played her first and only match for Belgium U21 team against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Tubize Tubize (; nl, Tubeke ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. On January 1, 2006 Tubize had a total population of 22,335. The total area is 32.66 km2 which gives a population density of 6 ...

. Van Wynendaele was part of the group who represented Belgium at the

2017 Cyprus Women's Cup The 2017 Cyprus Women's Cup was the tenth edition of the Cyprus Women's Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Cyprus. Format The tournament consisted of a group stage, held over three match days followed by a single d ...

and at the

UEFA Women's Euro 2017 The 2017 UEFA European Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2017, was the 12th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the women's national team ...

After football

Van Wynendaele works as a physiotherapist at the Medical Sports Centre in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Lebbeke Lebbeke () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders in the Denderstreek. The municipality comprises the towns of , Lebbeke proper and . In 2021, Lebbeke had a total population of 19.560. The total area is 27.31 km². ...

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Belgium's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Belgium goal.''

References

External links

Player's Profile at UEFA
* * 1995 births Living people Belgian women's footballers Belgium women's international footballers Women's association football midfielders RSC Anderlecht (women) players Super League Vrouwenvoetbal players BeNe League players Club Brugge KV (women) players K.A.A. Gent (women) players Belgium women's youth international footballers UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players {{Belgium-women-footy-bio-stub